FIRE, A Test Bed for ARIES-RS/AT Advanced Physics and Plasma Technology
Author: Dale M. Meade
Date of PPPL Report: October 2004
Presented at: the Sixteenth ANS Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE 2004), 14-16 September 2004, Madision, Wisconsin; proceedings to be published in Fusion Science and Technology.
The overall vision for FIRE [Fusion Ignition Research Experiment] is to develop and test the fusion plasma physics and plasma technologies needed to realize capabilities of the ARIES-RS/AT power plant designs. The mission of FIRE is to attain, explore, understand and optimize a fusion dominated plasma which would be satisfied by producing D-T [deuterium-tritium] fusion plasmas with nominal fusion gains ~10, self-driven currents of ≈80%, fusion power ~150-300 MW, and pulse lengths up to 40 s. Achieving these goals will require the deployment of several key fusion technologies under conditions approaching those of ARIES-RS/AT. The FIRE plasma configuration with strong plasma shaping, a double null pumped divertor and all metal plasma-facing components is a 40% scale model of the ARIES-RS/AT plasma configuration. "Steady-state" advanced tokamak modes in FIRE with high beta, high bootstrap fraction, and 100% noninductive current drive are suitable for testing the physics of the ARIES-RS/AT operating modes. The development of techniques to handle power plant relevant exhaust power while maintaining low tritium inventory is a major objective for a burning plasma experiment. The FIRE high-confinement modes and AT-modes result in fusion power densities from 3-10 MWm-3 and neutron wall loading from 2-4 MWm-2 which are at the levels expected from the ARIES-RS/AT design studies.